Staley gets Chargers to buy in with his collaborative culture
Brandon Staley was introduced as the Chargers’ head coach, but he looked the part of a motivational speaker by comfortably engaging with about 100 high school athletes during a football camp at Long Beach Poly High earlier this month.
Staley noticed three-time Super Bowl champion Willie McGinest standing to his left while he spoke about building relationships and seizing opportunities.
“I told the group, when you’re around guys like Willie McGinest, you need to take advantage of that opportunity and introduce yourself,” Staley said about the Long Beach-area legend who attended Poly and USC before winning championships with the New England Patriots. “You need to
be around a guy who comes from where you come from and has achieved all that he has.
“I know I’m going to introduce myself after this because I know that there’s things I’m going to learn from him.”
Staley learned plenty from McGinest after a lengthy introductory chat about what it takes to win a Super Bowl and how to make a lasting impact in Southern California.
Staley plans on sharing that knowledge from McGinest — and everything he’s learned in the past seven months since being hired as the Chargers’ head coach — to his 86 players who were expected to report Tuesday for the start of training camp. Staley’s first camp practice as a head coach is Wednesday at Jack Hammett Sports Complex in Costa Mesa.
A RELATIONSHIP-DRIVEN COACH >> Staley, 38, has quickly made a name for himself as an innovative coach constantly looking to learn from others by forging genuine relationships. His giving-and-receiving approach has led to a meteoric rise since earning his first NFL coaching job with the Chicago Bears in 2017.
He’s no longer the assistant coach pushing for a head coaching gig, but he continues to have the same approach and isn’t leaning on his impressive credentials, which includes turning the Rams into the top-ranked defense in the NFL last season during his one-year stint as defensive coordinator.
Staley spent the offseason listening and encouraging feedback from his new Chargers players and coaching staff to gain trust and create a collaborative environment.
“It’s a position that he has been working really hard for,” Chargers edge rusher Joey Bosa said about his first impressions of Staley. “Now, he gets to be the head guy and run things exactly how he wants to. He wanted us to know how confident he is in us as players and how much he trusts us. He’s really open to talking and suggestions. It’s a great relationship that he’s building so far.”
Staley’s defensive scheme produced winning results with the Rams, but he spent months tweaking it to fit the strengths of the Chargers’ defensive roster that features Pro Bowlers Bosa, safety Derwin James and cornerback Chris Harris Jr. and emerging linebackers Kenneth Murray and Drue Tranquill.
Staley took the foundation of his defensive system from Broncos coach Vic Fangio when he was his outside linebackers coach in Denver and Chicago from 2017 to 2019. But Staley didn’t attempt to replicate Fangio’s scheme and added his own wrinkles.
“He is his own man,” said Harris when asked to compare Staley to Fangio. Staley coached Harris with the Broncos in 2019. “He is doing it the way that he wants to do it. He’s more relational than Vic (Fangio). Vic is kind of closed-door. You have to work your way in with Vic. Coach Staley, he is just a very sociable guy.”
Although Staley was assigned to the outside linebackers, he often asked Harris for advice during their lone season together in Denver.
“We talked all of the time, all through the year and during the season,” said Harris, a four-time Pro Bowl cornerback. “He would pick my brain, ‘Chris, what would you do in this coverage? What did you think on this?’ We would just talk football all of the time. From there, I knew that he was a very intelligent coach. He was a very relationship-driven coach. Guys liked him.
“Then Coach Fangio always had opportunities for his assistants to have presentations. Coach Staley always had amazing presentations and always kept everybody upbeat on what he was presenting. From there, I knew that he would definitely have a great chance to be a head coach.”
BLENDING IDEAS >> Staley, who overcame cancer after being diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma at 24, presented himself as a friendly and talkative coach during a 90-minute introductory news conference with Chargers reporters in January.
Chargers assistant coaches and players have yet to see Staley shout in anger and many don’t expect that to change when the games arrive — win or lose.
Defensive backs coach Derrick Ansley first worked with Staley in 2012 at the University of Tennessee when Staley was a graduate assistant. Ansley said Staley’s friendly personality hasn’t changed in the past decade.
“He always came off very humble, very eager to learn and asked a lot of good questions,” Ansley said. “You could tell at that age that he was going to go on to bigger and better things. He was always impressive from Day 1. He hasn’t changed one bit.”
Staley is the latest 30-something NFL head coach with a calm demeanor. He quickly meshed with Rams coach Sean McVay last season because of their similar personalities.
Staley will use what he learned from competing against McVay during Rams practices to form the best offensive system for quarterback Justin Herbert, the reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year. But Staley, a former college quarterback at Dayton and Mercyhurst University, will also collect past experiences from his coaching staff.
Quarterbacks coach Shane Day has recent success from working with Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers the past two seasons. Offensive line coach Frank Smith made a lasting impact as a tight ends coach with the Las Vegas Raiders and was instrumental in Darren Waller’s development.
Offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi spent 12 of the past 14 seasons working in New Orleans with Saints coach Sean Payton, who has operated one of the most productive offenses in the NFL since 2006.
“It’s been really fun to work with him because he’s one of the few guys that’s a defensive head coach but also played quarterback,” Day said about Staley. “That’s a very unique experience. I’ve really enjoyed having our conversations because he’s bringing a lot to the room. He’s shared a lot of defensive perspectives with the quarterbacks. When he’s able to frame it from a quarterback’s perspective, that really helps us integrate it into our thought process. I’ve really enjoyed a lot of our conversations.”
Staley has been busy blending ideas from different perspectives to create a successful operation on the field, but it always goes back to relationships for the coach from Perry, Ohio. Taking the time to get to know his players away from football is how he got the Chargers to quickly buy in, despite his lack of head coaching experience. BUYING IN >> James immediately realized his good friend and Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey was right about Staley when the two had their first conversation during Staley’s tour of the Chargers’ facility.
“Everything that I’ve heard, and everybody I’ve met through this game, had nothing but great things to say about (Staley),” James said. “Our first talk on his first day here, the day he signed with the Chargers, I remember him just bringing me up here and wanting me to be a part of his moment. For me, it’s just relationships. Everything that’s been said has been spot on.”
Staley has embraced backgrounds and personalities by letting players be themselves. He refers to cornerback Michael Davis by his nickname “Vato,” which is Spanish slang for man.
“That’s what he likes to be called,” Staley said about Davis, who’s half Mexican. “If you know Vato, that’s such a big part of his story. What you try to do is you try to tap into that, and I think what’s so cool about learning L.A., Southern California is that Mexican American, that Latino population is such a huge part of the fabric of this place and what makes it so cool.
“So the fact that we have a player that’s half Mexican and what that means to people, because he’s so proud of his heritage, yeah, I’m going to tap into that.”
Staley has made all the right moves when it comes to building relationships and installing his systems this offseason, but the next phase of his challenge as a firsttime head coach is getting his team prepared during training camp as games quickly approach.
RELYING ON TRUST >> Staley will have plenty on his plate as the team’s defensive play caller, but he plans on leaning on the trust he has with his coaching staff, specifically defensive coordinator Renaldo Hill, who will be in the booth while Staley calls plays on the field.
“I’ve learned so much from him and we have such a strong professional relationship and personal relationship,” Staley said about Hill. “I think having that upstairs perspective as a coordinator, there’s going to be things that I think he can help me with between series. … He can talk to the defensive staff from an adjustment standpoint when my big-picture focus then transitions to (special) teams or offense and I think we’ve done a lot of trial runs in the spring camp.
“I can’t emphasize how special of a coach he is and how much he’s meant to our staff and our players.”
Staley has quickly risen through the coaching ranks because he listens and wants others to succeed with him. That formula helped him as a small-program college coach at John Carroll University and James Madison and he hasn’t gone away from that in the NFL.
The relationships and trust Staley has created since being hired as head coach will dictate how the Chargers go in 2021.